haha
Do you guys find yourselves getting competitive at the gym? Boy do I ever. The old track days coming back I guess. heh.
I\'ll admit, I
do get a feeling of satisfaction when I\'ve run farther than everyone else I walk past. That part of the track spirit never goes away. But I know exactly how far and how fast I\'m running and how much I\'m lifting every time I walk in the door and I don\'t let anything deter me from the program. The day you start altering your workout based on other people, you\'re headed for trouble. It\'s nice to be at a gym with nice members, but at the end of the day it\'s like Pec said...it\'s just you and your workout and nobody else matters!
Running while looking up isn\'t a problem for me, I think it\'s from all the Ultimate I play. If you\'re having trouble, try to find a machine that\'s farther back from the TV so you\'re not looking at so much of an up-angle. You\'ll get used to it pretty quickly, then you can move to machines closer to the screen.
BTW I\'ve been on a month-to-month at Gold\'s for $19.95 since day one. Best rate in town. (Bally\'s was $39.95 a month!) You should tell them about the Boston rate and then just loudly suck in air through your teeth until they give it to you.
I\'ve had to gym-shop 4 times in the last 3 years with all of my moves, here\'s a couple more things I\'ve gathered in case you end up not liking Gold\'s:
GlobalFit gyms (Bally\'s, BSC/NYSC, Fitness Formula) have the best facilities but are outrageously priced and the ones I have seen are always impossibly crowded. They get people to pay a lot of money for extras that they never use. Don\'t like \'em.
Independent gyms have some advantages. They\'re usually cool about accomodating customers since the employees actually have power and the place can\'t afford bad pub. My independent gym in NYC was totally cool about letting me out of my 1-year deal 4 months early when I had to move. You\'d never get that at a corporate gym. Independents tend to be more low-budget i.e. some older, worn equipment and shorter hours but the right one can be great.
You\'re a student, check out the college gym. They\'re usually dirt-cheap and not the least bit crowded. Facilities are totally hit-or-miss, you just gotta check it out. If it\'s a good facility it\'s almost certainly the best deal in town, plus its on campus which makes it easy to get to.
The Gold\'s I\'m at now has been great. No contract, reasonable rate, great equipment, never more than half-full. The Bally\'s down the street is always so packed you can\'t move and costs twice as much. I still can\'t figure that one out, but I\'ll take it!